Update: I was unfortunately not aware of Shamus Young's severe criticism of Fallout 3 available here to link in the original piece and I regret that. It dovetails rather nicely with what I've written and it's much better executed than my piece. I strongly recommend anyone...

Virtua Fighter 2 Review

What a knucklehead!

The time has come for the world fighting tournament to begin. Lau Chan,
the winner of last year's tournament, will return to defend his title
against nine formidable opponents. Though each fighter is motivated by their own
personal reasons, they have all come together with one thing in mind: to bludgeon their way to top and earn the distinction of being the best fighter in the entire world.

It's all there! From Lion's double kick on a falling foe, to Shun downing
a bottle of sake, everything that you loved about the arcade version is in
Virtua Fighter 2 for the Saturn. After a disappointing Virtua
Fighter and an acceptable Virtua Fighter Remix, Sega has finally
graced us with a winner. Virtua Fighter 2 is perhaps the most
beautiful arcade translation ever. Saturn lovers finally have a game of
which they can be proud. Who said that the Saturn could't handle
polygons?

First off, the graphics are amazing. They are as close to the arcade as
possible. Smooth as a baby's butt, every character moves with the
greatest of ease. The polygons look so good that it's hard to believe
that it's on a console other than the Playstation. The only obvious
difference between the graphics of the home version versus the arcade are
the backgrounds. In the arcade, the backgrounds are polygonal just like
the characters, but on the Saturn, the backgrounds are two dimensional.
This minor omission is not very noticeable because the two dimensional
backgrounds still look stunning. The lack of polygonal backgrounds also
speeds up the fighters, so what you lose in visual pleasure, you gain in
gameplay.

An integral part of fighting games is their music and sound effects.
Fighting games need music that gets your adrenaline pumped. Luckily, the
sound effects and music are almost identical to the arcade version of
Virtua Fighter 2. Every sound, from Jeffery's "I win!" to Pai
giggling like a little girl, is included. The music is also superb. It
makes your pulse pound as you wipe the mat with your opponent.

The gameplay is where Virtua Fighter 2 truly excels. Each character
has at least twenty special moves listed in the instruction book. Don't
think that those are all the moves, though. There are a lot of moves that
are unlisted that you have to discover for yourself. The moves are
different from Street Fighter II and every other fighting game. The
more complex moves take awhile to learn and are sometimes hard to execute.
Virtua Fighter 2 still has those characteristic 'floating' jumps
that are the cause for many arguments. Once you get used to them, they do
add an extra skill to master in the game. Airborne combat is a matter of
timing that will come after a little practice.

All in all, the boys at Sega couldn't have done a better job in the arcade
translation of Virtua Fighter 2. This is one game that shows off what
the Sega Saturn can actually do. If you loved this game in the arcade, you
should buy this game for the Saturn. Though the Playstation may be
designed for polygons, Virtua Fighter 2 for the Saturn looks better
and smoother than any other polygonal fighting game for the next generation
systems. This just might be the best home console fighting game ever.